Wasting Talents

We are each given various talents, abilities, and opportunities by God. He is the giver of all such gifts (Jms 1:17) But like the lazy slave can we waste our talents?

The answer is yes. Yes we can.

But is money/talents/works what God wants? Are they an end in and of themselves, or a means to an end?

In Exodus we see the Lord provide for the people of Israel as they are leaving Egypt by allowing them to successfully plunder the Egyptians (Ex 3:21-22) (Ex 12:35-36) . But if we fast forward to Sinai we see the Israelites use the very gold that the Lord provided them with to create the golden calf (Ex 32:1-3). Not only did the Lord bless them with the gold they used to create idols, and thus violate the covenant at its inception, but the wasting of the gold is illustrated in its totality when Moses makes the Israelites drink it. (Ex 32:20)

How broken is the human heart that we can take the very gifts of God and use them to utterly blasphemy His name. Yet in His great love there is forgiveness and reconciliation. But we see demonstrated that sin still has consequences when the gold God provided the Israelites is not restored. It is lost. It is a missed opportunity that will not come again.

I know I need encouragement sometimes to take advantage of the opportunities I have. Praise the Lord for grace. But may we also understand the gravity of sin, and the consequences even of forgiven sin.